Landsberg Prison
It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and where he dictated his memoirs Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess.Anton Graf von Arco-Valley, who shot Bavarian prime minister Kurt Eisner, was given a 'Festungshaft' sentence in February 1919.In 1924 Adolf Hitler spent 264 days incarcerated in Landsberg after being convicted of treason following the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich the previous year.With the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949 and its abolition of the death penalty, calls from politicians, the churches, industrialists, and artists resulted in numerous petitions being made to close down War Criminal Prison No.[6]: 156–159 Although the protestors at Landsberg claimed to be good-faith opponents of capital punishment itself, and not motivated by any kind of pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic feelings, their actions belied their words.[6]: 158 The German historian Norbert Frei observed that almost all of the politicians who demanded freedom for condemned prisoners at Landsberg at various protest rallies outside the prison, such as Richard Jaeger of the CSU, later became prominent advocates of restoring capital punishment, which strongly suggested that what people like Jaeger objected to was not executions in general, but the executions of Nazi war criminals.[6]: 158 Frei called Seelos's speech, with its claim that the war criminals facing execution at Landsberg were just as much victims as the Jews that they killed in the Holocaust, a "breathtaking" exercise in moral equivalence.[6]: 158 In early 1951 the Bavarian parliament passed a resolution declaring that all military prisoners at Landsberg, Werl, and Wittlich should be recognized as POWs, making them the financial responsibility of the Federal German government.On 2 January 1951, the West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, met the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, John J. McCloy, to argue that the status of the Landsberg prisoners was not so much a legal question as a political one, and that to execute the Landsberg prisoners would ruin forever any effort at having the Federal Republic play its role in the Cold War.[6]: 157 On 31 January 1951 McCloy, under very strong pressure from German public opinion, agreed to review the sentences from the Nuremberg and Dachau trials.
Landsberg am LechCoordinatesBavariaMunichAugsburgAdolf HitlerBeer Hall PutschMein KampfRudolf HessAlliedOccupation of GermanyNazi War CriminalsGeneral Joseph T. McNarneyFederal Republic of GermanyArt NouveauPanopticonEmil MauriceHermann KriebelFriedrich Weberforced laborAnton Graf von Arco-ValleyKurt Eisnerpolitical prisonersHauptscharführerMühldorf subcampDachau TrialsAlliesWorld War IIUS ArmyUnited States Army's Military Police (MPs)crimes against humanitysubsequent Nuremberg trialsAmerican forces in JapanJapanese militaryDachauThird ReichGottlob BergerPaul BlobelKarl BrandtSepp DietrichHellmuth FelmyOtto HofmannKarl-Adolf HollidtHermann HothWaldemar KlingelhöferGustav KnittelAlfried KruppHans LammersWilhelm ListErhard MilchJoachim PeiperHermann PisterOswald PohlGustav Adolf Steengracht von MoylandOtto OhlendorfMartin SandbergerOtto SteinbrinckWalter WarlimontMartin Gottfried WeissFritz DietrichFriedrich EntressEduard KrebsbachRichard JaegerBavaria PartyHeligolandHolocaustBavarian parliamentWittlichKonrad AdenauerJohn J. McCloyAlfried Krupp von Bohlen und HalbachWerner BrauneErich NaumannGeneral Thomas T. HandyMühldorfadjutantBuchenwaldEinsatzgruppen TrialsUli HoeneßDoctors' TrialSpandau PrisonSugamo PrisonWayback MachineThe Montreal GazetteNational Archives and Records Administration